I grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin. I have a bit of experience using Ubuntu Linux from when I was a teenager (~2010). My uncle gave me his old computer and I was allowed to keep it in my room. I mainly used the computer for pirating music and movies, and quickly found that Windows was not well suited to these enterprises. I eventually turned that computer into a media server which would allow me to remotely access my pirated material from other devices. Since I lost my appetite for these nefarious activities, I have not touched a linux machine.
I attended the University of Wisconsin: La crosse for my undergrad degree where I majored in Cell and Molecular Biology. During my undergrad I took an intro to computer science class where I learned the principals of coding and how to use Java. After I graduated, I moved to Egg Harbor Wi, where I spent a year working as a brewer at Shipwrecked Brewpub and figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. I eventually became tired of being perpetually broke and secured a job at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Mn, working in their Clinical Genomics Lab; first as a technologist, then as a lead technologist, and finally as a technical specialist. While there I learned a lot about lab work and NGS, and a bit about bioinformatics and IT.I also taught myself how to use VBA so I could create time saving excel macros in VBA for my lab work.
After 5 years at Mayo Clinic, I once again decided it was time for a career change and here I am now at CSU studying plant breeding and genetics.
Here is a picture of me making crosses last summer: